The Earth Mage
by randomlyrite
Summary: A girl joins Fairy Tail at age 8 and grows up with Natsu, Erza and Gray, she makes new friends, and goes on quests, even meeting Lucy, but is she really harboring a secret dark past from everyone? and why?
1. Chapter 1

The morning her life changed forever, She woke up to find it raining, sighing in annoyance she jumped down from the tree she had been sleeping in, muttering a quick thank you to it she looked round before letting out a sharp whistle.

Almost immediately the sound of bounding feet filled the forest, a large grey German shepherd with red eyes ran over the girl, she grinned as she saw the berries he was carrying in his mouth. He slid to a halt in front of her panting heavily.

"Good boy Cerby!" she grinned "you found our breakfast!" she took the berries from him and gave them a once over she hummed thoughtfully "they do contain poison, but as long as we don't swallow the seeds we'll be fine" she gave the dog a stern glance "you'll listen to me this time right?"

The dog almost winced at her sharp look before hastily nodding in agreement, he hadn't listened last time and was ill for at least a week, the illness was nothing against his mistress's punishment though...

The girl grinned and popped a handful of the berries into her mouth, biting down onto them she sighed "why are the poisonous ones always the tastiest?" her stomach growled in agreement.

The noise of a bird sharply taking off from a tree nearby startled her and she instinctively swallowed all the berries in her mouth, seeds included...

Turning a violent shade of red the girl clutched at her throat and letting out choking noises, the nearby dog barked inquisitively before running up and nudging her legs.

"C...erbs I need help... t.a..ke me...b..a.c..k ..t.o...t..he...hu..mans..." she choked out before falling to her knees.

The dog howled in sadness but took on a determined scowl; he nudged her onto her back before taking off at a sharp pace to the closest human town.

It only took about 20 minutes to get there, but by that time his mistress had gone completely still and white, running to the closest building the dog ran full speed at the doors and easily smashed through them, collapsing from exhaustion he laid down and prayed someone would help his mistress.

Incidentally the building the dog had burst into belonged to the Fairy Tail guild and the members had all watched in shock as the dog carrying an unconscious child on its back smashed through the doors and dumped the young child on the floor before passing out itself.

It only took a moment of hesitation before the guild sprung into action, Makarov ordering Elfman to pick up the girl and take her to Porlyusica and asking Mirajane and Erza to set up a bed for the dog.

Only after saying this did he realise that perhaps Erza and Mira weren't the best paring he could've made... arguing over who'd move the dog and who'd have to make up the bed, they ended up having another fight outside and completely forgetting about the dog.

Sighing Makarov turned to Reedus and requested for him to take care of it.

Two hours later and the dog woke up, he looked around and sniffed before his eyes widened. His mistress wasn't here. He stood up sharply growling at the approaching humans.

"Why is he acting so aggressively?"

"What's wrong puppy" crooned a young girl with short white hair, she reminded the dog a lot, of his mistress and he let out a sharp demanding bark.

"Is he looking for the girl he brought here?" a short old man wondered out loud, the dog barked and nodded his head wildly

A teenaged girl with black hair widened her eyes "it can understand us?"

The dog barked warningly at her before turning back to the old man and tilting his head, he needed to know where his mistress was...

The old man studied him curiously before turning to a boy with pink hair "Natsu, show this dog to Porlyusica's house."

"Awh but gramps, its just a stupid dog" the young boy with pink hair moaned "he's probably just hungry or something"

The dog let out a bark of aggravation and sent the boy a scathing look.

"Fine, whatever, come on you overgrown mutt" he muttered

They trudged through the forest the dog thoroughly enjoying himself as he took a few snaps at the boy's heels and enjoyed making him jump. As they neared Porlyusica's home the dog picked up his mistresses scent and ran off eagerly the boy spluttered in shock before yelling and running after him.

The dog soon reached the cottage from which he could smell his mistress, but something didn't seem right, she had an overly salty smell mixed in with her normal smell of earthiness. The dog scowled worried and ran up to the door and scratched at it politely as his mistress had taught him.

An old woman with pink hair opened the door and ignoring her surprised expression the dog ran inside past her and to his mistress lying on a bed, her black hair lay around her greasy and full of knots and dirt. Her skin was glistening with sweat and her face covered with dirt and dust. It had been a long time since she had bathed properly...

He nudged her pale face with his snout and made a whining noise.

The pink haired lady came up behind him and put a comforting hand on his back "she's not in as bad condition as she appears, she is malnourished however and it has affected her growth. She'll never grow very tall and will have troubles conceiving children..."

The dog looked at his mistress with pitying eyes, it was his entire fault, he didn't look after her like he had promised...

A loud crash snapped them both out of their thoughts, the pink haired boy, (was it Natsu the old man had called him? the dog wondered...)

"There you are you stupid dog!" he yelled red in the face "You can't just run off and leave people!"

The pink woman shushed him and motioned to the young girl in the bed.

Natsu blushed and apologised quietly, he looked over and saw the young girl who looked only a few years younger than him, she was covered with dirt and she looked like a skeleton.

"What's wrong with her" he asked Porlyusica loudly

She shushed him before glancing at the child, pity showing in her normally stern eyes "she ate some poisonous berries"

Natsu blinked, confused "that's what made her so skinny?"

Before Porlyusica could answer they heard a soft sigh and an excited bark from the bed

The girl had woken up.

The girl's point of view

I woke up lying on something so nice soft and comfortable that I didn't care where I was, I didn't want to move from this position it was so warm and comfortable! I couldn't even remember lying on something like this before.

Hearing some muttering voices I opened my eyes slowly and sighed as I stretched out my aching body.

A loud bark drew my attention to my loyal best friend sitting by my side happily licking my arm.

I grinned "Cerby! Stop it! that tickles!" I yelled giggling and playfully hitting him on the nose, he smirked (as much as a dog can smirk) and pulled me to the floor and we started play fighting.

I heard snickering to my right and stopped fighting to stare, a boy around my age with pink hair stood there sniggering at us "your name is Cerby? That's such a girly name!" he grinned at my dog

I stood up blushing furiously, and moved to hold Cerbs back from attacking but I was too slow, Cerberus had bitten the boy by the sleeve and thrown him through the door before chasing him out.

I sighed and turned to the older lady in the room "I'm so sorry! Cerberus just loves to fight a bit too much... I'll go stop them!" I said before running out the room

They were fighting hand to... paw? Punches kicks and bites flying everywhere.

I frowned "Earth magic!" I cried holding out my hands and concentrating on making a big earth wall separate the two

"That's enough Cerberus!" I demanded, my eyes taking on a darker glint, my dog flinched and trudged over to me.

I turned to the pink haired boy and smiled shyly "It's nice to meet you! But in the future please don't pick fights with Cerby" I frowned "he's sort of addicted to fighting and its something I'm trying to train him to avoid..." I smiled sheepishly rubbing the back of my head.

The pink haired boy scowled "I'll fight who I like"

"Oh... all right then..." I said feeling really awkward, I thought for a moment "Uh... I'm Adrianna but please just call me Rian"

The boy nodded and started walking off, I watched him go but he got about 10 meters away before turning back and yelling "hey aren't you coming?"

"Coming where?" I muttered but followed him nonetheless

We walked down the mountain together in silence, the atmosphere was tense and I decided to try and make conversation "h...Hey, so what's your name...?" I stuttered out.

"Why should I tell you?" he replied smugly

My eye twitched "I told you my name... so it... it's only fair right?"

He stopped walking sighed and turned to face me "I'm Natsu" and with that said he begun walking again.

Sweatdropping the rest of our trip was spent in silence.

We reached our destination, a strange looking building with a sign reading Fairy Tail hanging above the broken door.

"Where are we?" I muttered to myself

Apparently hearing me, Natsu turned round "the best place on earthland for wizards like us!" he proclaimed loudly with an almost blinding grin.

'Wow, what mood change from earlier, he must really love this place... wait wizards?' I thought to myself

"You're a wizard?" I asked in disbelief

He smirked "You're looking at the best fire wizard in Fiore!"

I face palmed "we're all doomed..."

He glared at me "what's that supposed to mean?" he asked angrily

I blushed "nothing... anyway how do you know you're the best? That's not something you should say so freely..."

"Tch whatever lets just go inside" he said pushing open the doors and leading me into a room that resembled a tavern.

Cerberus let out a laughing bark, we both looked at each other in mirth, humans were always the same no matter where you went...

A short old man with a weird hat walked over to us "oh Natsu your back!" he glanced over at me "and you brought our guest with you!"

Natsu confidently strode up to him "she's called Adrianna and she's some sort of wizard..." he yawned "I'm going to go home now... see ya gramps" Natsu walked out of the doors.

Leaving me with the old man, I blushed under his scrutinising gaze "Uh I'm Adrianna... But he already said that uh... I'm an Earth based mage... I'm 8 years old... I think..."

He let out a loud laugh "welcome to Fairy tail Miss Adrianna, we're a guild where wizards can join to find jobs, however we mainly see ourselves as a big family." He smiled softly "I'm Makarov the master of the guild. We haven't had an earth based mage as cute as you for a while, so how about it? Would you like to join?"

My mind whirled... they wanted me to join? A big family? "Yes!" it slipped out before I had even thought about it "yes please" I stated firmly yet happily.

He brought out a stamp looking item and asked me where I wanted my guild tattoo; I thought hard about it "uh could I possibly have it on my left shoulder blade?" I asked shyly

He nodded and moved to press the stamp against my shoulder blade when... "MASTER!" Something collided with him and the stamp hit me on the chest.

Leaving a green guild symbol right above my heart on my chest.

The girl who had collided with master Makarov looked at it and blinked "that's going to be problematic in the future" she muttered.

I tilted my head "why?" I asked innocently

She blushed and told me I shouldn't worry about it before introducing herself "I'm Mirajane" she said somewhat happily and introduced me to her other family members "this is Lisanna" she said pushing me over towards a white haired girl, Cerberus followed us eyeing everyone in the room suspiciously.

"Lisanna is about your age, so I'm sure you'll be friends or whatever..."

She showed me over to a young man sitting in an uncomfortable looking suit "and this is Elfman my younger brother."

"It's nice to meet you all" I smiled happily; maybe other humans weren't as bad as I thought...


	2. Chapter 2

The years I spent growing up in Fairy tail were the happiest of my life, I met so many new people, made so many new friends and even a few enemies (cough Natsu and Gray cough) I was originally strong friends with Erza and Lisanna, but as soon as Lisanna died it was just me and Erza, and she was away on missions for the majority of the time, However I always had Cerberus, my loyal and by now very old pet, by my side.

I lived in the forest for 5 years until Erza finally realised and the guild forced me to buy a house.

By then I had saved up an extremely generous amount of money from quests and could afford to buy a very nice 2 floored house, it was nice and all, but nothing could beat sleeping under the stars.

Being friends with Erza had led to me getting into the habit of training everyday and I was now as a result, extremely strong, Cerberus had endured all my missions and training with me and was now probably the strongest dog in the country, he still enjoyed fights far too much and found every opportunity to pounce on Natsu (he never really got over his dislike for the boy)

Returning from a recent job I walked into the guild and happily greeted everyone, I sat down next to Mira and we started talking about recent modelling we had done.

"That picture of you in the white bikini in sorcerers weekly last week was so pretty Mira!" I grinned "I bet all the wizards in the guild bought that magazine" I said the last bit loudly and gained a few embarrassed and ashamed blushes from the nearby guys...and a few girls.

I giggled "hey Cana! You bought it right?"

She nodded and took a swig of her drink

Mira blushed "Rian, you shouldn't say things like that..."

"WE'RE BACK" "we're back! ~" Natsu yelled kicking open the door

"Hey" "hello" "welcome back" The guild greeted them

I grinned "HAPPY!" the flying cat jumped into my arms and I hugged him tightly "I missed you Happy!" I cooed "I saved you some amazing salmon that I caught the other day" the cat drooled and nuzzled my face

"AYE! I missed you to Ri-ri!"

"HEY! Happy! Stop being nice to her!" Natsu yelled at him

I glared at him "what was that?"

He flinched and shrunk back "nothing..."

A man spoke up "You really went all out this time, I heard Hargeon was..."

Natsu kicked the man in the face cutting him off "You little!" he yelled

A blonde girl I didn't see before looked startled and let out a cry of "why!"

"You lied to me about the salamander!" Natsu accused

"Don't blame me! I only told you some rumours I happened to hear!" The man yelled back

"What?"

"You wanna fight?"

Natsu then proceeded to go crazy and flip some tables over, the people sitting on them cried out in anger and shock.

I sweat dropped...

"okay Natsu, I think that's enough" Happy placated before getting hit by a falling man and sent flying, I sent a root up to grab him and stop him from hitting the wall.

A bar fight broke out and I just sat on my bar stool watching curiously before I caught sight of a half naked Gray, I blushed "Hey pervert! You've got no clothes on again! I'm just going to have to teach you some decency!" I yelled at him before launching a kick at his face.

He blocked and I landed gracefully beside him, he just ignored me and yelled at Natsu "hey fight me!"

"Don't ignore me!" I screeched kicking him in the stomach.

"Put some clothes on first" Natsu added

Gray rubbed the spot where I kicked him and looked at me "you're stronger than you look midget"

I saw red lashing out I grabbed him by the hair and flipped him over "Cerberus! Bite his sorry butt!"

Cerberus bounded over and stared evilly down at Gray before biting him on the butt, hard.

Gray stood up and ran into Natsu yelling "get this stupid mutt off me!"

I was on the floor from laughter.

"Its only noon and you're already whining and crying? You aren't kids you know" Elfman said mockingly

I narrowed my eyes, me Gray and Natsu stood up and collectively punched him and sent him flying "Butt out!" we yelled

Looking down I noticed Cerberus was tired; he was already about 16 years old, so it took less to tire him out lately.

I worriedly led him over to Mira to be looked after. After wandering around, I found her talking to the blonde girl from earlier

As I approached, the blonde girl caught sight of me. "Adrianna!" she squeaked "you're Adrianna! You do so many popular photo shoots for sorcerers weekly"

I blushed and was about to reply but Gray cut in "Rian? You've got to be mistaken! She's as flat as a board" he said motioning to my reasonably sized chest, true it wasn't as scarily big as the other female wizards chests but, it wasn't non-existent!

The blonde girl laughed "no it is her! She's so popular with men, they have a shot of her in every magazine!" she said handing Gray a magazine filled with pictures of me in bikinis

His face flushed red as he examined the magazine; I kicked it out of his hands "You're such a pervert!"

He blinked "I'm the pervert? I'm not the one having such creepy pictures taken of me!" he argued

I blushed "well at least I wear CLOTHES!"

Gray looked down at himself in surprise "oh, opps!"

Letting out a frustrated yell I kicked him back into the massive fight and walked back over to Mira

"Anyway Mira, I need you to keep an eye on Cerberus for me, he's tired again" I said motioning to the now sleeping dog. I turned to the blonde girl "It's nice to meet you..?"

"Lucy" she said staring in shock at Cerberus's massive form

"Don't worry about Cerbs he wouldn't harm a fly unless I told him to!" I reassured her "well, unless you're Natsu or Gray... Cerberus really seems to dislike them..."

She smiled at me, before turning back to look at the large fight and looking worried "shouldn't we stop them?"

"They're always like this. We should just let them be" Mira said happily "besides..." Elfman was thrown out of the fight and into her "its fun don't you think?" she said lying on the floor being crushed by her brother's weight.

I grinned at Lucy "Also, they're idiotic people; you really think they'd listen to us?"

As Lucy panicked about Mira, Grey stumbled into her, without his boxers on... Natsu was twirling them around...

5, 4,3,2,1...I exploded at Natsu "YOU CREEPY CHILD! Are you TRYING to destroy my innocence?"

Natsu looked confused "what innocence?"

"ARGHH!" I threw barstools at him in anger. And kicked Gray away from Lucy

"She doesn't want to see... THAT!" I yelled my face burning.

Cana picked up one of her cards "You guys had better knock it off!"

"Now I'm mad" Gray said, once again in his boxers and powering up his magic

Elfman transformed his arm and Loke focused magic on his ring, Natsu lit his fists on fire

I sighed and got into a stance ready to build a barrier for Lucy.

I was saved from the need to do so by the master's entrance in one of his taller forms.

Much to my amusement Lucy's eyes bugged out of their sockets and she yelled out "huge!"

"That's enough you fools!" Makarov yelled angrily.

Everyone in the room froze.

Everyone except Natsu; the biggest idiot in the room "Looks like I win this..." he laughed; until Makarov's huge foot came down and crushed him.

I bit back giggles and Mirajane asked "oh, your still here master?"

Makarov saw Lucy "oh, your new here?" his voice bellowed

Lucy shivered "y..Yes" she stuttered

Master shrunk back down into his tiny form, ignoring Lucy's dumbstruck look "nice to meetcha" he said happily

"Tiny! Wait he's your Master" Lucy asked us disbelievingly

Mirajane grinned "yep this is Mr. Makarov, Fairy Tail's master"

Makarov turned away and jumped up, into the balcony barrier before recomposing himself and jumping to stand on it.

"You guys have gone and done it again!" he told us "just look how much paperwork the council sent me this time" he held up a stack of paper "and it's all complaints!" Makarov's face darkened "all you guys ever do is get the council mad at me!"

Everyone one in the room looked down in shame.

Makarov shook from anger "however..." he said setting the papers ablaze "to hell with the council!" he threw the papers away and Natsu jumped up to eat the fire.

"Listen up!" Makarov called to us "Power that surpasses reason is still born from reason, magic is not a miraculous power, it is only realised when the flow of energy inside of us, and the flow of energy in the natural world is in perfect sync! Magic comes from mental strength and focus... no it comes from your entire soul!" Makarov looked up "worry about the eyes watching from high above, and you will make no progress in the ways of magic! Don't let the fools on the council scare you! Follow the path you believe in!" Lucy looked at us grinning and we couldn't help but grin back "That's what Fairy Tail wizards do!" He pointed at the sky

And with a roar of agreement we copied

After speaking with Master Makarov it was agreed that Lucy was to join Fairy Tail and I swear I've never seen anyone as nearly as happy as she was then.

Mira brought out the tattoo stamp and stamped Lucy's hand "there! Now you're an official member of Fairy Tail!"

Lucy stared at her hand in amazement before rushing off the show Natsu

"Look, Natsu! I got the Fairy Tail mark!" she told him ecstatic

"Oh, yeah? That's great, Luigi."

I snorted "you'll never get a girl if you can't even remember their names hothead" I laughed mocking him

"It's Lucy!" Lucy yelled at him angrily

Natsu ignored her and turned to face me "I don't see any boys out for your attention tinytits."

Turning red from a mixture of anger and embarrassment I made to hit him round the face, but Lucy held me back.

"He's not worth it Adrianna" she muttered consolingly

I stopped struggling and grinned at her "call me Rian!" I asked her

She let me go and agreed shyly.

"Actually, come to think of it, now that you're working here, have you got a place to stay?" I asked her still smiling madly

Lucy sweatdropped "I didn't think about that..." she muttered

My grin grew wider if that was possible "well I have a room I can offer you!"

She looked at me unsurely "I'm not sure I'd be happy living off you for free.

I frowned slightly "I suppose I can charge you a tiny rent...as long as you can cook for me!"

She sweatdropped "that sounds fair..."

She took my address and I told her to move in whenever she wanted to.

Looking over we saw Makarov being pestered by Macao's kid

"Is my dad still not back?" he asked desperately

Makarov peered down at him "your getting on my nerves, Romeo. If you're a wizard's son, then have faith in your father and wait at home quietly!"

"He said he'd be gone for 3 days, but it's been a week now!" Romeo told him

"If I recall it was a job on Mt. Hakobe..." Makarov murmured to himself

"It's not that far away! Go look for him!" Romeo pleaded angrily

"Your old man's a wizard!" Makarov yelled down to him "There's no wizard in this guild that can't take care of themselves! Go home and have some milk or something!"

"Stupid head!" Romeo cried out, punching Makarov in the face "Darn it!" he screeched running out.

"Come on Cerberus" I called my dog and chased after the boy.

Catching up to him I grabbed him around the waist and ignoring his protests carried him over to the side of the street.

"You promise not to run off if I put you down?" I asked him

He sniffled and nodded tearfully

I placed him down in front of me and knelt down to be eye to eye with him.

"Now Romeo, what do you think your dad would want you to do right now?" I asked him softly

"Try to find him?" he asked tears streaming down his face

I laughed and gently wiped the tears away "no, your father would never want you to put yourself at risk like that for him, would he? No, what he'd want you to do, Is to be strong for him until he gets back, you think you can do that Romeo?"

I asked and ruffled his hair

He offered me a shaky grin

"There we go!" I said happily, "now let's go..."

I was cut off by Natsu striding past and patting the boy on the head, speaking an unspoken promise.

"Hey Romeo" I told him grinning "looks like your dad will be home sooner than you thought!"

The little boy looked up at me; his eye's shining with hope.

I giggled "let's go make him a welcome home present"

Going back to Romeo's house I spent the rest of the day making a welcome home cake with him, he told me about the bullies that told him wizards were lazy and how he had gone to his dad and told him to get a job. I told him that he shouldn't feel guilty and that his dad was defiantly going to be coming home; I tried to keep him in a positive mood. After all Macao was defiantly going to be back soon now that Natsu had gone after him.

Surely enough at about 6pm we heard familiar voices out in the street and rushed out to greet them,

Natsu was holding up a sheepish looking Macao, covered in bandages and bruises.

Romeo gasped, his eyes going wide, and leaking out some tears "DADDY!" He cried launching himself at his father "daddy, I'm sorry!" he cried into his dad's back.

"I'm sorry for worrying you" Maeco softly told his son

"It's okay; I'm a wizard's son!" Romeo tearfully assured him

"The next time those brats try and pick on you, ask them if their dads can take down 12 monsters" Maeco told his son smugly

Romeo grinned up at him and nodded; I smiled softly and walked away with Lucy and Natsu

"THANK YOU HAPPY AND NATSU, THANK YOU TOO LUCY, AND THANK YOU BIG SIS RIAN!" Romeo yelled to us

We turned around and waved back to him cheerfully.


	3. Chapter 3

Lucy moved in with me that night, we agreed she could decorate the room how she likes and by her insistence she'd pay a monthly rent of 70,000 jewels

Though if she couldn't pay one month I wouldn't bother her about it... after all I don't really spend any money...

The food I eat is caught by me, the water I use is from the nearby river and put through a filter and the boiler is a wood burner, and I get the wood myself too.

I was preparing her a welcome breakfast, with the food on the plate arranged like a smiley face, when I heard yelling up stairs from Lucy's room.

I ran up to see Lucy kicking Natsu into a wall... the problem here? Lucy was only wearing a towel

I saw red "NATSU YOU CREEPY PERVERT!" I screamed kicking him into another wall

"Eh?" He muttered dazed "what are_ you _doing here?"

"This is my house" I smirked

"How did someone like _you _get a place like this?" he muttered angrily

"This place is nice" Happy smiled scratching the walls.

Cerberus gave him a warning bark, he liked his home, it was safer for his mistress to be here, rather than in a forest.

Natsu went through Lucy's desk "what's this?" he asked holding up a wad of papers

"No!" Lucy screamed grabbing the papers and kicking him in the face.

I snickered to myself in the background, he had it coming...

"Now I'm curious" Natsu moaned standing up "what is it?"

"Its none of your business" Lucy cried "just get out of here!"

I smiled cracking my knuckles "well if the lady wants you out..."

Natsu went pale "uh, we just came to hang out!"

"So selfish..." Lucy wept

I went downstairs and brought up Lucy and mine's breakfasts, bringing up 4 cups of tea, otherwise they'd only moan for ages...

"I just moved in" Lucy was saying "so I don't have anything for entertaining guests"

I set the tea and food in front of them, and she sent me a glare

"So drink your tea and get out."

"What a cruel person" Natsu moaned

"Aye" Happy agreed

"No, she just doesn't want you destroying my house" I told him snidely

"Hey! It's not my fault I have a sense of humour!"

Me and Lucy sweatdropped and muttered "sense of humour?"

"Oh I know!" Natsu crowed happily "you can show me all the key guys you've collected!"

"They're celestial spirits, not 'key guys'" she told him tiredly

"How many celestial spirits do you have contracts with Lucy?" Happy asked curiously

Lucy held up her key chain "6 and there are different types! These silver keys are sold in shops" she told us, holding out the silver keys "the gold ones are super rare and open the zodiac gates" she showed us the golden keys, each one sparkling and shiny as if they were polished only just recently.

"Oh yeah!" she remembered "I haven't made a contract with the key I bought in Hargeon"

"Since your here, I'll show you how a celestial mage makes a contract with a celestial spirit!"

"You think they seal the contracts in blood?" Happy and Natsu whispered

I cheered "yay! Lucy- cutie is gonna show me her powers!"

Natsu punched me in the face "what sort of perverted comment is that?"

I only shrugged off the punch and laughed

'_Someone's jealous! I will help this budding romance along!'_ I thought grinning manically

"What are you smiling like that for Ri-ri?" Happy asked me cutely "It's kind of creepy"

Cerberus shot me a worried look and I only grinned more.

"Just watch" Lucy sighed in frustration "I am connected with the path to the celestial spirit world, heed my call! Pass through the gate!" she held out the key in front of her "open, gate of the little dog, Nicola!" A yellow glow filled the room, and out of it came a yellow blob that morphed into a... mini snow man?

"Better luck next time" we all consoled her

"I didn't mess up!" she defended; the snow man looked up at her and waved "so cute!" she squealed picking it up and hugging it.

"You sure about that?" Natsu asked

"Yeah, I don't see it..." I said observing the snow man thing "Cerberus is much cuter than that thing."

Cerberus preened at the praise, and everyone else just sent me worried looks.

"Nicola's gate doesn't use much magic power, so he's popular as a celestial spirit pet!" Lucy said cheerfully, hugging Nicola tighter.

"Natsu this is a case of pure human egotism!" Happy whispered to Natsu

I threw a cup at him "knock it off! I used my powers to befriend Cerberus!"

"Man, Luigi and Rian are scary" Natsu muttered to Happy

"It's Lucy. I can hear you, you know." Lucy muttered, she crouched down in front of Nicola holding a notepad and pen "okay let's get down to the contract. How are Mondays for you? Tuesdays? Wednesdays?"

"This is mundane." Natsu moaned into his teacup

"Aye" Happy agreed

"Yup" I said falling back onto Lucy's bed "oh, this is so comfy!" I rolled around on it enjoying watching Lucy's eyebrow twitching.

"Okay..." she sighed before turning back to Nicola "contract complete" she snapped the notebook shut and smiling widely

"That was easy" Happy deadpanned

Lucy held up one finger "It seems that way, but it's important. Celestial wizards take their contracts very seriously, so I make a point to never break my agreements!"

"Oh..." we all nodded

Lucy turned back to the wobbling celestial spirit "Oh yeah! I still need to choose a name for you!"

"I thought his name was Nicola" I asked

"That's just a generic name" her eyes lit up "I got it!" she held her arms out to the... thing "come here Plue!" she grinned "sounds cute doesn't it? Right Plue?"

Natsu raised one eyebrow "I think he hates it..."

"That's not true" Lucy hastily denied

"Plue's a dog constellation but he doesn't bark? That's weird." Happy stated cheerfully

I sat up sweatdropping "Happy you can be a bit too blunt sometimes..."

Lucy nodded "and besides, you don't meow."

Plue got up and started jigging around

Natsu grinned "well said Plue!"

"You can communicate?" Lucy asked excitedly

"Well they do have the same mental capacity..." I mocked

Natsu stood up and stared down at Lucy creepily

She blushed and turned away "w...What are you doing?"

"Keep your eye's off my roomie!" I yelled waving a fist at him

"All right! It's decided! Let's team up!" He declared out of the blue

"Good idea!" Happy cheered

"Team up?" Lucy muttered confusedly

"Yeah, although all the guild members are comrades, people who are on good terms get together to form 'teams'" I told her in a bored voice "If a job is too tough for one person, doing it in teams makes it a lot easier..."

"I like that! It sounds fun!" Lucy cheered

"What?" I sweatdropped "don't tell me you want to be stuck with this idiot!" I jabbed a finger into Natsu's stomach

She ignored me and shook hands with him

"All right! It's decided!" Natsu grinned

Lucy grinned back "We have an agreement!"

My frown softened, they looked so happy...

"Fine whatever, but I won't have you destroying her innocence... I'll just have to join too!" I said making Natsu growl at me.

"Who said you could join?" he asked menacingly

I smirked "well if you want I could just tell Erza all about your plans for Lucy..."

"YOU CAN COME!" Natsu cried out panicked

"Erza? Plans?" Lucy muttered

I patted her consolingly on the back "don't worry about it!"  
>"I already decided on our first job!" Natsu said holding out a job poster<p>

"Oh you're so impatient! Let me see!" Lucy joked, grabbing the poster off of him

As she was studying it I saw Natsu grin like a psychopath...

"Shirotsume town huh?" she read "No way! 200,000 jewels to take a single book from the mansion of a guy named duke Everlue?"

Natsu grinned widely "good deal right?"

I scoffed "what's the catch?"

Lucy read on "note; he's a dirty perverted man, looking to hire a blonde maid"

"Lucy happens to have blonde hair" Natsu whispered to Happy conspiratorially

"Let's have her sneak in dressed as a maid!" Happy added

"You planned this from the start..." Lucy muttered

I brought out my baseball bat "you lying creepy weirdoes!" I yelled waving it around

"I've been had!" Lucy cried out, tears streaming down her face

"Celestial wizards always take their agreements seriously you say? That's mature" Natsu mocked

"You tricked me!" Lucy accused them loudly

"You tricky pervert! I should smash your head in!" I screeched hitting them with my bat

Lucy held my arm back "you shouldn't do that" she sweatdropped "you may kill off the few brain cells they have left..."

I sat down pouting "If you say so... however, I don't think there'd be much of a difference..."

Natsu sat up laughing loudly "let's rehearse, call Happy master!"

Lucy let me go, her eyes dark "I take it back. Kill them."

My pout transformed into a wide grin "I will, with pleasure."

Their screams filled the town

Two hours later we were in a carriage on our way to Shirotsume town, Natsu was lying down looking pathetic and Lucy and I were sitting opposite of each other, talking and making fun of Natsu

"Enjoying the ride master?" Lucy taunted with a mocking grin

Natsu grimaced "You're the maid from hell..."

Happy pouted "I'm supposed to be the master!"

I grinned and put an arm around Lucy "you can be my maid any day!"

"Shut up cat! And uh... thanks I guess Rian..." Lucy slid from under my arm awkwardly "anyway, Natsu" she said

He turned to her, his face green "Yeah?"

"What made you decide we should team up?" she questioned innocently

Natsu turned away "well, you're a nice person..."

I saw Lucy blush _'could it be, this idiot is actually charming her?'_ my eyebrows raised in surprise

"Even though you're weird." He finished

I face palmed, he had to ruin it...

Lucy glared at him before smiling determinedly "Well this is my first job; I'm going to go all out!"

Happy stopped eating the fish I had packed for him "Huh? I thought you didn't like this job"

"I'd be worried if she did" I muttered

"I'm dealing with a dirty man" she posed "Believe it or not, I'm somewhat confident with my feminine charms!"

"I wouldn't know. I'm a cat" Happy told her, and Cerberus barked in agreement.

"Just so we're clear, we're splitting the money 70 10, 10, 10. Since you three aren't doing anything" Lucy decided

Happy blinked innocently "oh, you only want 10% Lucy?"

She sent the cat a death glare "I'm the 70%!"

"Hey the carriage is stopping!" I cheered before looking down at Natsu "you need a hand getting out?" I mocked holding out a hand

"Shut up you stupid tree hugger." He replied whacking my hand away

I paid the Carriage driver the 90 jewels we owed him and we headed into the town.

"I'm never riding a carriage again" Natsu moaned, clutching his stomach

"You always say that" Happy pointed out

Natsu grimaced "Let's just go get some food..."

Lucy looked at him confused "why don't you just eat your own fire?"

I blanched, eww that would be like me eating a vine, or some earth...

Natsu flinched "that's cruel, would you eat Plue or that cow of yours?"

"Of course I wouldn't!" she cried out, eyes wide at the thought.

"It's like that." Natsu muttered

"You're saying you can't eat your own fire? What a pain." Lucy moaned

Natsu spotted a tavern and grinned "hey! Lets eat here!"

"Go ahead, you three can eat" Lucy told us walking off

Natsu frowned "Awww, eating together would be more fun..."

"AYE..." Happy agreed

I blinked "what's wrong with eating with me? Am I not fun?"

Natsu sweat dropped "no offense Rian, but you're not exactly what we'd call 'fun', with your hair up in that perfect bun all the time, and your neat clothing and strict way of speaking... I swear you used to be the girl who rolled around in the dirt with her dog..."

I blushed "Well I had to stop all that to be able to fit in with everyone, the girl I was before was socially unacceptable and I'd of never made friends like that..." I frowned reaching down to pet Cerberus who looked up at me with pity in his eyes

"If you want my opinion? I think being yourself will get you more friends than pretending to be something you're not" Natsu told me grinning.

I blushed then scowled "what do you know dragon boy? You can't tell a person from a tree, I shouldn't be taking advice from you."

He smirked and turned away "whatever, hey you coming? I need _someone_ to pay for my food"

I sighed and followed him inside, but when he wasn't looking I smiled softly... maybe I should stop trying so hard to be the perfect human...

We ordered and grabbed a table out side, when our food arrived I almost cried "What the hell did you do? Order everything on the menu?" I wept looking at the bill in front of me.

He grinned and looked at his meal "let's save a greasy one for Lucy!"

Happy grinned back "Yeah she seems like she'd like greasy food!"

I let my head hit the table "You guys are so generous..." I muttered sarcastically against the wood.

"Since when do I like greasy food!" Lucy asked angrily walking up behind me

"They can be so..." I let myself trail off as I caught sight of her

"I guess I really do look good in anything" she said posing in the short maid outfit she was wearing,

Our mouths hit the floor, except food wasn't falling out of_ mine_

"Are you finished with your meal master?" she acted wiggling cutely

I squealed and jumped up and hugged her "you look so cute! Can I borrow it afterwards? I have a friend who absolutely adores things like this!"

She smiled widely until she heard the last part "what sort of friends do you have?" she muttered

I grinned at her creepily "the amazing kind" I winked

We heard Natsu and Happy whispering in panic behind us, and I turned around and sent them a suspicious glare.

"I can hear you, you know" Lucy muttered

I laughed and grabbed her hand "let's leave these idiots" I said pulling her away with me "enjoy paying the bill boys" I called back to them

Giggling we ran out of the restaurant being chased by a fuming Natsu and a crying happy

"Rian, Lucy! I'm sorry!" Happy cried flying into my arms

I smiled "its fine Happy, at least you can apologise!" I said glaring at Natsu who was muttering "traitor" to happy

We walked over to the man who wanted us to steal the book 's house, it was a huge traditionally styled mansion, seeing it made me flinch but I composed my self before anyone else saw.

We knocked and were invited inside and offered tea, the home owner walked in and sat down with us. We watched him patiently, waiting for some mission information.

He took in a deep breath "I am Kaby Melon, I posted the job."

"Melon?" "That sounds like a tasty name" Natsu and Happy drooled

"Stop it, that's rude!" Lucy hissed at them

The Melon man laughed "its fine, I get it all the time. Now let us get down to business"

"Aye" "all right" "sure..." we all agreed

"I would like you to destroy, or burn, a book in Duke Everlue's possession called Daybreak" He told us

"Burn huh?" Natsu frowned "We can burn down his whole mansion if you'd like..." he grinned and lit one finger on fire "It'd be a cinch!"

"No! We'd go straight to jail if you did that!" Lucy yelled at him before turning to Mr Melon "mind if we ask why?"

Natsu rolled his eyes "what does it matter? It's for 200,000 jewels!"

Mr Melon raised a hand cutting us off "2 million jewels actually..."

"TWO MILLION?" we all screeched in shock

"Oh you didn't know?" Melon grinned sheepishly

Natsu held up 4 fingers counting "2 million split between 4 people... I can't calculate that!"

"Don't hurt yourself" I muttered "It'd be 500,000 each."

Happy flew over to Natsu ignoring me "It'd be 1 million for you 1 million for me and Lucy and Rian can have the rest!"

"You're smart Happy!" Natsu cheered

"That leaves none for us!" me and Lucy yelled at them

I turned to Mr Melon "but, why...?" I asked him softly, it was such a large reward for such a small job...

"I _must _destroy that book..." he murmured angrily "I cannot allow it to exist."

Natsu's head suddenly lit on fire, causing Lucy to shriek and me to sigh and roll my eyes "All right! Now I'm all fired up!" he cried

I sighed "here we go again..."

"Let's go guys!" he yelled dragging us out of the mansion

"A...alright" Lucy agreed

"Let go of me you weirdo!" I yelled at him. Before looking back at the confused mansion owner and Cerberus and yelling "Cerby! You stay there!" I turned back and glared full force at Natsu

He only laughed and dragged us all over town until we found the mansion.

We hid behind a tree as Lucy stood by the gate and yelled out how she was there for the maid's position.

"Don't screw up!" "Good luck!" Natsu and Happy whispered

The ground behind her bulged and out exploded a mammoth sized maid with pink hair and a piggy like face "Applying for the maid position?" she boomed

"y..yes!" Lucy said in fright

"Master we have an applicant for the maid position!" she yelled

And the ground beside her exploded and out jumped a portly looking man with a moustache growing out of his nose...

"Boyoyoyoyoyo!" he yelled before landing "did you call me?" He pinched his moustache, "let's see here..." he said looking at Lucy

"It's wonderful to meet you!" Lucy crooned putting on a cute face.

He stared at her deeply.

"nope, no thanks, get lost, ugly." He told her turning away

My jaw dropped "I'm going to kill that blind..." I muttered but was stopped by Natsu putting a firm hand on my head

"Be quiet midget!" He whispered fiercely "You're gonna get us caught"

I blushed from embarrassment and nodded, turning back to watch Duke Everlue call up 5 more ugly maids and declare "elite men like me, can only be surrounded by beautiful girls!"

All the scary looking maids crooned and fussed over the duke and I had to swallow some vomit, this man had some creepy fetishes...

Lucy waited until they left and came crawling back to us, crying.

I let her cry into my shoulder as Natsu said "man, you're useless"

I sent him my scariest glare and was rewarded with him flinching and hiding behind a tree

"It's not my fault the man has a messed up sense of beauty..." Lucy muttered

"That's an excuse." Happy stated

I sent him a glare too "It's not! Did you see the messed up faces of those maids? I wouldn't go near them with a radiation suit on..."

Natsu punched his palm "all right! We'll just have to switch to plan T now!"

"Urgh! That old man's going to pay for this!" Lucy raged "wait, what's plan T?" she wondered

"T stands for 'take by storm'" Happy informed her cheerfully

"What kind of a plan is that?" Lucy said panicking

I laughed "don't worry cutie! I'll protect you!"

Natsu glared at me "you should stop being such a pervert"

I pouted "awh, but its so much fun..."

We all got onto the rooftop and Natsu melted a hole in a window for us

"Man, we're supposed to storm the place, not sneak around, why can't we just charge the place head on?" Natsu moaned

Lucy frowned "forget it, we don't want to get the army involved"

I laughed "though that could be fun as well..."

Natsu looked at Lucy confused "what? You just said he was going to pay!"

Lucy smirked "he's gonna pay alright!" she grinned "while we're in there, I'm totally gonna hide his shoes or something..." she laughed manically

I face palmed "your methods of revenge are so petty Lucy" I muttered as I climbed through the window

The first room we entered was really cluttered and messy "what's this? A storeroom?" Lucy wondered out loud

Happy started messing around with a skull he had found and had put it on his head, really scaring Lucy.

"Looks good on you Happy" Natsu complimented

We looked around the mansion for a while and Natsu was starting to get bored

"Are we gonna check every room we see?" he sighed

I hit him round the head "you have the attention span of a fly! Of course we're gonna, how else are we going to find this stupid book?"

He glared at me "but wouldn't it be quicker to just grab someone and ask them where it is?"

Lucy frowned determinedly "we have to complete our mission without being seen." She grinned "it's cool, like we're ninja's"

Natsu blushed and drooled at the thought of being a ninja.

"You could never be a ninja" I scoffed "you're too loud and stupid."

The ground in front of us trembled and out burst all of the creepy looking maids.

"Intruders detected. They must be disposed of" The large pink haired maid yelled

Happy looked up at them in his skull hat and they all freaked out, screaming "ghost!"

Natsu punched them away yelling "you're annoying!"

"Flying Virgo attack!" the pink maid cried and belly flopped onto Natsu

"Natsu!" Happy screeched, worried

Lucy sent him a glare "take that thing off would you?"

Natsu lifted the maid off him and kicked her away with a fiery foot yelling "NINJA!" he then made the ninja hand symbol and declared "we cannot allow ourselves to be discovered Nin-nin!"

"nin-nin" Happy copied him

Me and Lucy sweatdropped "so conspicuous..."

The next door we opened led to a huge library, but what interested me the most was

"Chairs!" I cried flopping down onto one; I pulled out my blanket and told Lucy "Wake me once you've found it..."

She looked at me in disbelief before sighing "whatever"

I tuned them out and focused on sleeping, I was instantly asleep and dreaming of a monkey swinging through a forest when I was woken up as Natsu accidently set fire to my sofa.

"WAHHH" I cried running round and rolling about "what sort of IDIOT set's an earth mage on FIRE?" I yelled at him.

He ignored me and moved to punch one of the men in the room.

The one in the white coat blocked his attack with a giant... frying pan and said "unfortunately for you, fighting fire type wizards is my speciality!" and hit Natsu with the frying pan and out the room.

I sighed and followed them out standing on the balcony behind them and observing "even if you are a fairy tail wizard, you're no match for fully trained mercenaries."

Natsu laughed and said "that's the best you can do?"

"Is he mocking us brother" blue and yellow coat asked

White coat looked at Natsu and asked "do you know what a wizard's greatest weakness is?"

Natsu's eyes bulged "r...riding in vehicles?"

The white coat sweatdropped "I can only assume that's some sort of personal issue you have."

I laughed and drew their surprised attention to me "It is, you're a real baby about it aren't you dragon boy?" I mocked him and jumped over the strange men to land next to him and hit him round the head.

"They ARE mocking us" Blue and yellow coat guy moaned

White coat exclaimed "their weakness is the body!" before jumping into the air, he lashed out at us with the frying pan yelling "mastering magic requires great mental training, which leaves you lacking of physical training!"

Blue and yellow coat guy made to punch me and I easily ducked and left him to punch a wall "we train our bodies weekly" they informed us "that's why, you're no match for our speed or strength."

"Oh scary" Natsu mocked them "even midget girl over here could beat you, so when are you gonna get serious"

I wacked him in his smug face "I've beaten you before you know Natsu, so saying that you're also insulting yourself..."

The weird men looked at each other and blue and yellow coat yelled out "brother, the combination technique!"

He then jumped in white coat's frying pan and they both yelled out "heaven and hell, annihilation technique"

"Bring it on!" we challenged them

White coat launched his brother into the air using his saucepan...thing and moved so quickly it was difficult to see him "face the heavens; I'll be on the earth!" He chanted and appeared in front of us and hit us with the saucepan, I flipped over backwards in the air and as soon as I landed I was forced to duck and backflip to avoid another hit.

"Face the earth; I'll be in the heavens!" blue and yellow coat said aiming to kick us from behind

"Mother nature lend me your power; Earth magic!" I muttered and raised a thin wall to block him (I doubt he even realised he hadn't hit us...) he sprung off it and landed near his brother.

"This is the 'Heaven and earth annihilation' technique." White coat told us "no one has ever survived this attack..."

We stood tall waiting for the dust to clear "No ones ever survived what now?" Natsu asked mockingly

"No way!" they panicked

Natsu used his flame dragon roar at them and they smirked "all right! Fire magic!" "Now he's done for!"

"Flame cooking!" White coat chanted as his frying pan absorbed all the fire "this absorbs all flames, transforms it, and blows it back..."

I sweat dropped, Natsu was gonna go crazy for a meal like that... I raised an earth shell around me, not wanting to get caught in the aftermath of it all...

I heard an explosion and the two brothers mocking him "roasted fairy!" "Goodbye." There was a pause and then a joint cry of "impossible!"

I sighed, poor men, Natsu wasn't going to hold back on them now..."

"Now that I've eaten I feel re-energised!" Natsu yelled "Didn't you hear me before? I'll blow you away with fire dragon wing!"

There was a roar of flames and then the sound of an explosion and windows shattering.

I lowered the shell and saw the two men lying there charred saying delusional things like 'mamma'

"Whoops, I overdid it" Natsu said nonchalantly, rubbing the back of his head

I scowled "you think?" I walked over to the men "I'm going to tie them up and treat their burns, you go find Lucy."

He nodded and grinned at me before running off.

I looked at the charred men before me and sighed, "We always have to go overboard at fairy tail, don't we?"

I raised some vines and made them tie around the men, before dragging them towards the window, I looked at them and said "well ladies first." I kicked them out and watched them hit the ground and then, I called up an earth staircase and walked down it gracefully smirking at them mockingly.

"Hey tiny girl!" "Untie us!" they moaned

I scowled "You know I liked it better when you weren't talking" I muttered "earth magic! Vines!"

I made the vines wrap around the men's mouths acting as gags and grinned "there much better!" I looked at their charred forms and felt a slight twinge of pity for them.

"Mother nature lend me your power; plant magic, rise aloe Vera plants" I muttered concentrating deeply on the herb I needed

A plant with the leaves I needed on it grew before me and I let out an tired sigh and fell to my knees, seeing the questioning looks coming from the two men I blinked "summoning and then speeding up the growth of a plant takes a lot of magic, I haven't really mastered doing it yet so it takes a lot my energy..." I grinned sheepishly before grinding the plant's leaves down and applying it to their burns.

The building in front of us started shaking and crumbling and I sighed "they've destroyed another one huh?"

I saw them running out and grinned, I turned to the tied up men and smiled "the vines will release you in an hour; I know the duke paid you to work for him, but next time? Please choose your jobs a little more carefully!"

I left them and ran over to my friend laughing "you've completely crumbled the place" I giggled, enjoying Lucy's dumbstruck expression.

"You really went all out Lucy!" Natsu told her "you really are a Fairy tail wizard!"

Happy grinned "Aye! But we ended up destroying more stuff..."

"T...This is my fault?" Lucy stuttered

I just laughed and it soon became contagious, we were all clutching our stomachs and laughing.

We eventually stopped and left to go see Mr Melon and collect our reward, it turns out that Mr Melon was the son of the author of the book 'daybreak' and that the book was really a letter to his son, rearranged by magic to look like a boring ill written book.

Natsu then turned down our reward saying it wasn't fair to get paid when we didn't destroy the book like the job had requested us to, it turns out that Kaby Melon was actually not very rich at all and had just rented the mansion for a few days to appear rich... so Natsu felt it was wrong to take any money from him.

I silently agreed, but I was still irritated that we had no money to get a carriage home and were stuck walking...

"Why do we have to walk anyway?" Lucy moaned voicing my thoughts

We set up a campfire and Cerberus caught some fish to cook over it from a nearby river, I was sent off to get more fire wood and when I came back I heard Lucy saying

"Please don't tell anyone about it!" and blushing madly

I blinked _'has dragon boy put some moves on her?' _I wondered, sitting down next to an asleep Cerberus

"I'm a terrible writer!" Lucy hid her face behind her hands "I'd be embarrassed if anyone read it!"

"No one would ever want to." Natsu sweatdropped

I hit him round the head and whispered "stop digging yourself a deeper grave idiot!"

"That doesn't exactly make me feel much better..." Lucy wept

I feel asleep quickly after that, the crackling of the fire and the warmth of Cerberus's body next to mine lulled me into a deep sleep.

I was woken up by Natsu yelling "GOOD MORNING" cheerfully into my ear

We had a brief fight that ended up with him in the nearby river and me being attacked by various forest wildlife.

This woke up a tired Lucy and we were both sent glares of death.

Lucy said she was too tired to walk and summoned her celestial clock to rest inside; this however gave her the left over energy to moan to us.

"are you sure this is the right way?' she asks" the clock informed us

"How rude!" Happy exclaimed "I am a cat, you know! Cats have a great sense of smell!"

"You're thinking of dog. What does smell have to do with path finding anyway? She asks" the clock told us

"Can't you just walk on your own." Natsu moaned

"I'm tired, she says" the clock spoke

I tilted my head to the side "hey Natsu, are clocks flammable?"

Our conversation was abruptly stopped as we saw a glint and heard a rustle from a bush

"Who's there?" Natsu cried diving into the bush and attacking whatever was there

"You're_ too_ quick to fight! She says" The clock said calmly

"Go Natsu!" Happy cheered

I bit back my laughter as Gray jumped out of the bush with Natsu

Happy waved "it's Gray!"

"Why is he in his underwear? She asks." The clock said

"That's a good question Gray you PERVERT" I yelled kicking him in the face

He fell to the floor but got up and glared at me "I was looking for a bathroom!"

"Why did you strip down before you found it?" Natsu demanded "why would there be a bathroom in the middle of the forest anyway?"

Gray glared at him "you should butt out when people are trying to use the bathroom."

"What bathroom?" I yelled at him

We had a glaring contest, knocking heads to see if anyone would back down.

"Talk about petty" I heard Lucy say

I sighed "I'm much too composed to be dealing with such uncivilised men as you" I strode off and took Lucy, Cerberus and Happy with me

"What's that supposed to mean?" they both yelled at me

We all eventually cooled down and Grey showed us where he'd been fishing before he ran into us

"Oh, you're on your way back from a job?" Lucy asked him

He nodded "cutting through this forest is the quickest way back to magnolia."

Happy beamed at us "see! See!"

"You bragged about your nose, but you couldn't even smell Gray out here." Lucy scowled

"There are some odours I don't want to smell" Happy informed us

Gray glared at the cat "what's that mean?"

I laughed "he has a point Gray, you've never smelt... very refreshing"

Natsu smirked at Gray "you're annoying, just hurry on home."

Gray stood up "I was planning to. We're in big trouble if we don't hurry back."

"What do you mean?" Lucy asked curiously

"Ezra's going to be back soon." He told us nervously

Natsu gasped and I grinned

Lucy looked slightly worried but more curious "you mean _the _Erza?" she asked

"They say she's the toughest wizard in Fairy Tail." Happy told her through a mouthful of fish.

I laughed "I _know _she's the toughest Wizard in Fairy Tail. Erza is the most beautiful and talented Wizard of her age!" I said with conviction

"Wow! I can't wait to meet her!" Lucy cheered "oh, but I've never seen any photo's of Erza in the magazines at all.. What's she like?"

All the boys depressedly stated "scary."

As I let out a stream of cheerful praises "she's compassionate and strong and looks amazing in armour, no matter how tough an opponent is she always beats it!"

Gray sent me a disbelieving look and muttered "you sound like her fan-girl. She's more like a wild animal?"

"A beast" Natsu offered

"More like a full fledged monster!" Happy decided

Lucy's mind was filled with images of a giant Erza rampaging a town, I laughed thinking about it, because it was so far from the real Erza that it was funny.

"She's not that big" Gray stated.

Natsu frown "no, she's surprisingly big." He disagreed

"In terms of scariness, Lucy's image of her isn't far off the mark." Gray considered "no she might even be bigger!"

I scowled "you're just jealous of Erza being stronger than you" I muttered

He glared at me "what was that midget"

"You heard me, or are you going death, you overrated ice lolly." I mocked

He scowled "ignoring the midget, we have to hurry back."

Natsu stood up panicking "yeah, we gotta go!"

A sudden explosion of the cliff top we we're sitting sent me flying into a tree and being knocked unconscious, when I woke up, a giant chicken in dungaree's was standing in front of me.

I blinked madly "Am I hallucinating?" I moved to rub my eyes but noticed my hands were tied behind my back "what the... you...ugh! You'll pay for this!" I yelled as I saw the men in the clearing.

Two ginger twins, a sorry looking man with black hair and a glowing purple ball, the aforementioned chicken and a goblin thing.

"She's awake!" the twins cheered.

I scowled, but on the inside I was shivering; Erza had taught me to never show fear "What do you want with me?" I demanded

They ignored me and gathered around Happy who was tied to a wooden pole and above a fire pit.

"Oh look, its shaking!" the twins noted

"Sorry" the goblin thing said "I know you're scared, but you'll be in our stomachs soon enough."

I tilted my head "you're going to eat Happy?" I giggled "there won't be much to go around."

"I'm not shaking because I'm scared" Happy denied and sent me a glare "I'm shaking because I need to go to the bathroom, I don't think I can hold it in. It'll probably make me taste weird too"

"Shut up." The goblin demanded "do it!"

The chicken squeaked in agreement and lit a staff on fire using his magic

"As soon as we're finished eating it, we'll bring this girl back to her mother and collect the bounty" The goblin said smugly

I took in a large gulp of breath and felt a dizziness overtake me, my mother? She wanted me back now? It had been more than 10 years since I ran, and she only cared about it now? I was surprised at how shocked I was, she was always a cruel woman after all.

"Make mine medium, please" black hair guy asked

"I can't hold it any longer" Happy pleaded, not noticing my distressed state "It's gonna make me taste strange, I hope you don't mind...!"

"Stop right there!" the familiar voice of Gray demanded

"Happy! Rian!" I heard Lucy call down

"Thank goodness I didn't end up tasting weird" Happy sighed

I sweatdropped, so that wasn't all an act?

"Those are our friends you have there" Natsu said cracking his knuckles "we won't let you eat them, just 'cause you're hungry!"

I blinked; they thought they only wanted to eat me? I let out a sigh of relief, so long as they never found out otherwise...

"You guys are wizards. What guild are you from?" Gray asked

"None of your business!" the goblin grinned "get 'em!" he cried to his team, who immediately jumped to attack.

Natsu and Gray dodged the oncoming attacks before Natsu was enveloped in a sand storm made by the goblin

Gray turned to Lucy "don't worry about him, you go save Happy! I'll go untie the midget!"

Gray dodged two attacks from the twins and their swords and knocked them down before kicking down the chicken that was threatening Lucy.

The man with Black hair stood up to Gray and told him "you will see the person you wanted to see, I see problems with women and water in your future."

"Just a fortune teller?" Gray scowled "you're obnoxious!" he yelled and elbowed the man in the face.

I glared at him "oi! Remember me! Poor defenceless girl tied up?"

He scowled and muttered "impatient midget" before untying me

I stood up and rubbed my wrists, stretching and muttering "oh, my hero" sarcastically

I turned back around to see Gray in his boxers again "Gray! Clothes!" I yelled blushing faintly

"Oh!" he noticed looking down at himself and looking around for his missing clothes.

The goblin guy watched us disbelievingly "who are these guys?" He was cut off as his sand dome exploded

"Why you!" Natsu yelled landing beside him "I'll teach you to fill someone's mouth with sand! Here goes, Dragon Iron Fist!" Natsu released a flaming punch on the guy and made another huge explosion.

When the dust settled, they noticed I had built a wall preventing the attack from hitting the goblin thing.

I scowled "I won't let you kill someone Natsu. Earth magic; vines!" the vines rose up and tied all the creepy men together.

Gray nodded in agreement with me "don't get so serious against small fries."

"You want me to burn off that mouth of yours?" Natsu threatened

I grimaced "no! No more burning today!" I yelled at them, only to be ignored.

"You wish your fire's too lukewarm." Gray mocked.

"huh? What was that?" and with that they were fighting again

My frown grew deeper "shut up both of you, you're giving me a headache!" and with that said, I knocked their stupid heads together.

"Lulla" the goblin muttered

Lucy knelt down in front of it "sorry? What was that?"

The goblin grimaced "lulla...by...is..."

"Huh?" Gray turned towards them

"Lullaby?" Natsu asked

"Look out!" Happy yelled knocking us out the way of a big shadowy claw; it grabbed the weird men, pulling the tree down with them and disappearing.

"What was that?" Lucy panicked

I blinked and muttered "dark magic?" disbelievingly

"Who's there?" Natsu demanded

Grey looked around "I already can't sense them anymore. Whoever it is, they're fast."

Natsu scowled at the trees "Damn! I don't know what's going on!"

"Lullaby?" Lucy whispered to herself


	4. Chapter 4

I arrived back at the guild tired, hungry and covered in sweat and dirt, and yet I was still greeted with hugs, grins and pleasant hellos

"It's good to be back" I cheered even giving Loke a big hug, though his hands did stray a bit too low and he ended up with a slap.

Me and Lucy went home and I had a nice long hot bath and a large dinner and by the next day I was feeling completely refreshed

I was helping Mira with serving drinks, she was teasing a flirty Wakaba and I was refilling Natsu's cup and listening to him moan.

"We should get to work..." he muttered, face down on the table

"Aye!" happy agreed biting down on a fish "we're running out of food money."

"I knew we should've taken that two million jewel reward" Lucy said worriedly "come to think of it, this month's rent is coming up!"

I laughed "you don't have to pay Lucy!" I grinned "your company, cooking and the constant amusement you bring to me is payment enough!"

She sighed "is that supposed to be a compliment?" Lucy sent me a determined look "I will pay you the rent, I wouldn't feel right, living at your house for free."

I sighed at her stubbornness and walked back over to the bar, placing my jug down and sitting next to Gray

"What's up frosty?" I asked him cheerfully

He scowled "why won't you leave me alone you creepy midget?"

I pouted "Cana! Tell him I'm not short, that I'm a normal size!"

She growled "you're both interrupting my drinking! Now be quiet or get lost!"

I turned to Cerberus and buried my face in his fur "she's so mean" I wept

I turned to my left to see Lucy and Natsu arguing over being a team and grinned

"Don't forget me Natsu~" I cooed "I'm on your team too!"

I enjoyed watching his face contort into anger, then denial, then sadness and finally acceptation "yeah, yeah, you too Rian..."

I grinned widely and hugged Lucy around the waist "Isn't this great Lucy?" I grinned "Now you can see me at home, at the guild and on jobs! We'll basically never be separated!"

She put on a wide forced smile "wow that's great Rian" she said

I laughed and let go of her in favour of dancing around humming cheerfully, only to be cut off by Gray

"Don't worry about picking a team; I'm sure you'll get lots of offers soon enough" He told her smirking

Cana paused from her drinking "Gray. Clothes."

Gray panicked looking down at his half naked form in shock

"You're annoying" Natsu told him

Gray stood up and glared at him "did you just call me annoying, fire freak?"

I giggled "boy's you should stop fighting..." I told them cutely

"Why?" they yelled turning to glare at me

I grinned holding up my bat sweetly, lets just say they were quiet after that...

Loke took the opportunity of me being distracted, to grab Lucy and ask her "Lucy, won't you form a team of love with me? Tonight just the two of us, you really are beautiful, even with my sunglasses on your beauty is dazzling, I'm sure I would go blind if I saw you with my naked eyes." he flirted.

I glared and punched him in the stomach "of course she is Loke you pervert! But she's also under MY protection, so back off!" I growled

He caught sight of her gate keys and flinched back "yo...You're a celestial wizard?" he questioned leaning away

"Huh?" Lucy asked, confused.

"Yeah. She has a cow and crab and stuff" Happy informed him as he ate a fish.

"AH! What a cruel twist of fate! I'm sorry! We can never be together" Loke yelled running out the door.

I watched him go "yeah! And don't come back!" I triumphantly yelled

Lucy looked at me nervously "uh, I don't think it was you that scared him off Rian...what was his deal though?" she asked Mira

"He's bad at dealing with celestial wizards" she told us, smiling happily "rumour has it he had trouble with a girl a long time ago."

Lucy sighed "I'm not surprised he's..." she was cut off as Natsu was thrown into her by Gray

I scowled and whacked Gray round the head with a mug "I told you guys to stop fighting, or do you need a reminder? I threatened

He flinched "he picked a fight with me. I can't turn down his offer!

"I told you, your clothes." Cana reminded him

He looked down and noticed his bare chest again and yelled out genuinely confused.

I scowled and hit him again, catching his arm as he made to hit me "you're such a massive idiot that you can get undressed without noticing..." I sighed

"hey he started it!" Natsu accused glaring at Gray "droopy eyes!"

Gray glared back "when exactly did I start it, slanty eyes?"

I glared at both of them "I'm going to be the one that finishes it in a second!"

"Talking underwear!" Natsu insulted Gray

"Hothead" I insulted Natsu

"Muddy little midget" Gray insulted me

Our fight was observed around the room and people started laughing, I blushed hotly, I hated too much attention.

My embarrassment was short-lived as Loke burst back into the guild yelling "this is bad!"

There was silence in the room as we all watched him.

He looked down before saying "its Erza... she's back!"

There was panic around the room, but I just grinned "she finally came back!" I cheered, holding myself from running out to greet her.

There was a loud crunching noise from outside and everyone was listening intently "it's Erza." "those are Ezra's footsteps""Erza must be back." people muttered fearfully

As she entered the room and set down her latest trophy I squealed and launched my self towards her "ERZA-ONEE-CHAN YOU CAME BACK!" CLANG. I hit my head against her armour and fell over dizzy.

She smiled and offered me a hand to help me up "Of course I've returned. Is the master here?"

"Welcome back" Mira greeted her "The master's at a conference."

"I see." Erza muttered

"What is that enormous thing, Erza?" a man asked motioning to her huge trophy of a horn.

"The horn of a monster I subdued" she said flippantly "the locals decorated it and gave it to me as a souvenir." She looked at him "is it a problem?"

"No, not in the least!" he cowered shivering.

"Listen up!" Erza demanded everyone's attention "On the road, I heard that Fairy tail has been causing yet more trouble. The master may not care, but I do! Cana!" she turned to the woman who was currently drinking a barrelful of beer "how dare you drink dressed like that! Vijeeter!" she said spinning sharply to face the dancer "Dance outside. Wakaba I see cigarette butts on the floor. Nab I see you're dawdling in front of the request board as usual. Do some work! Macao!" she turned to him and simply let out a sigh

"Say something!" Macao demanded feeling insulted

"Honestly, you cause so much trouble." Erza said rubbing her forehead "But I'll be kind and say nothing for today." She decided

She turned to me a smiled "are Natsu and grey here?"

I grinned "yup" and pointed over to where the boys were 'hugging' and pretending to be friendly so as not to piss off Erza.

"h-hi, Erza. We're good buddies as usual...!" Gray said nervously

Natsu let out a high pitched "AYE!" I laughed as Lucy panicked about him turning into Happy

"I see" Erza nodded straight faced "It's natural for good friends to fight sometimes, too." She enjoyed watching them shiver before adding "That said, I like seeing you get along like that."

I turned to her and tilted my head playing along "but Erza, how come you never fight me?" I forced tears to prick at my eyes "are...we not good friends?" I wailed

"Ah, but that's because we're not testosterone filled idiot males" she told me wisely "we don't have the stupid constant need to prove ourselves by fighting for nothing."

I nodded "so basically, we're like on a whole different level already, by just being female!" I summarised grinning widely

"You...sneaky...midget" I heard Gray mutter

I turned to him "got something to say to me and _Erza_ Ice pop?"

Erza turned to stare at him and he stuttered out an "n-no... of course not..."

"Rian. Natsu. Gray. I have a favour to ask." Erza told us plainly "I heard about something bad while on my last job. Normally, I would consult the master about something like this first, but I believe this is a matter of the utmost urgency. I want your help. Will you come with me?"

I grinned "did you really need to ask?"

"We leave tomorrow. Make sure you're ready." Erza finalized before leaving.

I grinned at Natsu and Gray "We're all on a team~" I sang before frowning "piss me off, and I'll kill you." I told them before grabbing Lucy's arm "come on Lucy, we gotta go pack!" I told her cheerfully.

"Wait? I need to pack? Why?" she asked me as she was pulled along.

I grinned and stopped "well Natsu and Gray will fight when Erza's not looking, you need to be there to stop them and also... I want you to meet Erza-onee-chan more and learn about how cool and wonderful she is!" I cooed.

The next day I took the duffle bag I'd packed that contained only a toothbrush, hairbrush, a black scarf and soap and left the house with Lucy, wanting to impress Erza I'd worn my knee length green gypsy skirt and a light green/yellow puffy pirate shirt, just in case of fighting I had bindings underneath though.

"Why do I have to team up with you?" Natsu demanded of us.

"That's my Line! I don't know why Erza needed all of us, I would've been enough help on my own Gray boasted

I scowled "It's too early in the morning to fight" I moaned "shut up before I kill you."

We had a menacing glare off throwing insults at each over for a while

"I'm sorry, did I keep you waiting?" a newly arrived Erza asked tugging a giant stack of suitcases on a cart.

I laughed but furrowed my eyebrows confused "Erza, why do have so much stuff? You can just switch out your clothing with your magic can't you?"

She simply sent me a mysterious smile and wandered over to Lucy "so, who are you? I didn't see you at Fairy Tail yesterday?" she asked her.

"I'm Lucy! I just joined! Rian asked me to come with you too. It's nice to meet you!" Lucy babbled.

Erza smiled "I'm Erza. It's a pleasure" she said smoothly "ah so you're Lucy? The one who defeated a mercenary gorilla with just your little finger?"

I gaped "wow, Lucy! You're stronger than I thought" I praised

"Is that another 'compliment?'" she muttered

"Anyway" Erza continued "It'll be wonderful to have you on board. Thanks for your help."

"m-my pleasure..." Lucy stuttered worriedly

"Erza. I'll come along, but on one condition." Natsu told her

Erza turned to face him "What is it? Tell me." She asked.

"Fight me once we get back!" he demanded eagerly.

I laughed mockingly "yeah, cause you're gonna do so much better than last time" I imitated what had happened by hitting my fist into the palm of my other hand "you were beaten to a bloody pulp" I grinned.

"Do you want to die?" Gray asked him scared

Natsu smiled confidently "things are different from last time. I can beat you now." He told Erza

Erza nodded and chuckled "it's true that you've improved. I feel somewhat at a disadvantage, but all right. I accept"

Natsu posed straining his muscles "All right! Now I'm fired up!" his head caught fire again

Minutes later we were on the train and he was completely blue and motion sick.

I poked him "hey hothead, what happened to your fire." I poked him again staring curiously at his vacant expression "hey you look more like ice boy now!" I said referring to his blue skin.

Gray glared at me "don't you dare compare me to that idiot" he hissed before glancing at Natsu and frowning "Geez, you're pathetic. This, immediately after picking a fight?"

"Its gotta be tough doing this every time..." Lucy pointed out

"Oh, all right. Come sit next to me." Erza told him.

Lucy sweatdropped, I grinned and nudged her "don't worry she's not trying to get rid of you or anything, she just wants to uh 'help' Natsu..."

I told her as she moved opposite us. Natsu sat imbetween us and Erza told him to relax before she elbowed him in the stomach knocking him unconscious and into her lap.

"There, that should be better" she said calmly

"Erza, Isn't it about time you fill us in?" Gray asked "what exactly are we doing?"

Erza nodded "Right. We're going up against the Eisenwald dark guild. They plan to use a magic called Lullaby for something big." She told us seriously

"Lullaby?" Gray gasped

Lucy frowned "that thing from before!"

We told her about the incident involving the weird men trying to eat happy, I left out the bit about my mother and the bounty on me, after all, no one in Fairy Tail knew fully about my past, and I'd rather it stayed that way.

"I see" she said "so you've encountered Eisenwald as well." Erza stated

Gray sighed "Probably. They did mention something about lullaby."

I blinked "It sounds like they were guild dropouts." I muttered

Erza nodded "the plan must've been to much for them, so they ran off."

"And that plan had something to do with lullaby?" Gray questioned

"It's only a guess" Erza said "but the shadow that dragged them off was probably Eisenwald's main squad. They must not have wanted the plan to get out."

"What kind of plan are we talking about?" Lucy whispered worriedly

Erza shut her eyes "allow me to explain everything in order. It happened the other day, on my way home after that job. I stopped by a pub in Onibas where wizards gather. "

She told us how she overheard some loud wizards talking about finding Lullaby and complaining that they couldn't do a thing about the seal on it, one man had stood up, (the other men called him Kage), and told them he'd be back in three days with the Lullaby.

"Lullaby...Like a nursery rhyme, right?" Lucy asked.

Erza nodded "yes. The fact that it's sealed away likely means it's very powerful magic. "

"And they were members of Eisenwald too?" Gray asked

"Yes." Erza confirmed "like a fool, though, I didn't recognize the name 'Erigor' at the time."

I scowled "the 'ace' of the Eisenwald guild, he only accepts assassination related jobs, for which he has earned the nickname 'Erigor the Reaper" I told them scoffing.

I had met the man once before, when I was 7 my mother introduced us and we had to spend a whole week together 'playing' is what she called it.

It was more like training... no, not even that, it was constant sparring to see who would collapse first.

Erigor did, and I never saw him again, only hearing of his 'achievements' through gossip.

"assassination?" Lucy gasped.

"The council outlawed assassination requests" Erza informed her "But Eisenwald decided money is more important. As a result, it was kicked out of the wizard guild league six years ago. However, they disobeyed orders and remain active to this day."

"I think maybe I'll go home..." Lucy sweated.

"You're making a lot of juice" Happy commented

Lucy glared at him "its sweat."

Erza smashed her fist down onto Natsu's head "I was careless! If only had I recognized Erigor's name then, I could've pulverized them and had them confess their scheme." She cursed herself.

I patted her armoured shoulder "It's probably best you didn't" I smirked "now although we have less of an idea of what they're up to, we have a stronger team and a sneakier approach."

Gray made a noise of agreement "so Eisenwald is planning to do something with this lullaby, and you want to stop them because it's obviously something bad?" he asked

"Yes" Erza agreed "I don't believe I can take on an entire guild by myself. That's why I asked for your help. We're going to storm the Eisenwald guild" she declared

Gray smirked "sounds interesting."

"AYE" happy agreed

"I shouldn't have come" Lucy moaned

Happy grinned at her "Lucy! Your juice!"

"Its sweat!" she glared.

We reached a stop and Lucy got off and brought us some sandwiches,

She got back on just as the train started to leave and we all started eating

"If it's not to rude to ask, what kind of magic do you use, Erza?" she asked over her sandwich

"It's not rude." Erza told her

Happy grinned "Erza's magic is pretty! It makes her enemies bleed a lot!"

"You call that pretty?" Lucy asked him disbelievingly

"Personally, I think gray's magic is prettier." Erza told her.

"Really?" Gray muttered holding his hands out, powering up his magic and producing an ice Fairy Tail symbol

"Wow!" Lucy said

"Ice magic" Gray informed her proudly

"Oh so is that why you two never get along..." Lucy wondered "because Natsu uses fire and you use ice?"

"Oh... I never thought of that..." Erza murmured

I frowned "it would explain why I panic every time I see Natsu using fire" I said recalling when He set me alight in the duke's mansion.

Lucy turned to me "come to think of it, I've seen you using lot's of different types of magic, I've seen you controlling vines, making earth move... what type of wizard are you?" she asked me

I blushed "I'm an earth mage, I can control anything that has been created by Mother Nature, controlling a plant or animal takes up a lot of my magic though, so I normally just stick to using my vines and the earth." I told her modestly.

Gray laughed "I remember when you tried to set a pack of mountain wolves on me, but you couldn't handle the magic and they ended up chasing you!"

My blush deepened "that was years ago!" I moaned "I've gotten better since then!"

"Yeah, yeah..." he rolled his eyes

We disembarked the train at Onibas and it wasn't until the train started leaving the station did we realise that we'd left the unconscious Natsu on board.

Erza pulled the emergency stop lever and we got into a hired magic- mobile (it's like a car powered on magical energy), Erza powered and steered it and we were off chasing the train at a great speed.

"Natsu!" Lucy yelled as the pink haired boy jumped out the train grinning and collided with Gray's head, knocking them both off the magic-mobile.

The car slid to a halt and we got out looking at the pathetic forms of Natsu and Gray sprawled on the floor, clutching their heads and moaning.

"Natsu! You alright?" Erza asked panicked

She received a dizzy "Aye..." from the idiot

Eventually they stood up, recovering from their pain and dizziness and the first thing they did once they had recovered? Yeah, they fought.

"That hurt, you idiot!" Gray complained

Natsu rubbed at his head irritably "Shut up! How dare you leave me behind!"

"My apologies, but you don't appear to be hurt. I'm glad." Erza said gently and hugged him to her armoured body, causing his head to whack against it and making a loud 'Donk' noise

I giggled "that was the noise of Natsu's empty head" I mocked.

"That's hard!" he moaned, clutching at his abused head "Urgh! I'm not all right! Some weirdo attacked me on the train!"

"Weirdo?" Lucy asked

Natsu nodded and frowned "the one who dragged away the guys who tried to eat Happy. Said he was with Eisenwald..."

Erza's eyes widened and she slapped Natsu round the face sharply "You fool! We're trying to go after Eisenwald! Why did you let him go!"

"This is the first I've heard of this..." Natsu muttered

"I explained it earlier! Listen when people talk!" Erza said angrily

I tapped her on the shoulder and stood on my tiptoes to whisper in her ear "uh, Erza... you do remember knocking him out, right?" I asked carefully

She blushed slightly, before hurriedly turning away, back to the magic-mobile "He was on that train, you say? We're going after it!" she connected herself back up to the engine.

"What was he like?" Gray asked Natsu quietly

Natsu looked up remembering "he wasn't very distinctive actually. Oh yeah. He did have some kind of skull flute. The skull had three eyes."

Lucy's eyes bulged and she paled considerably "A three eyed skull?"

"That's creepy." Gray muttered

I frowned "I think it sounds sweet, I've always wanted to play the flute..."

Happy looked at our blonde companion in concern "what's the matter Lucy?"

"I know about that flute..." she gasped "Lullaby... a cursed song...! It's death magic!"

Erza turned to her "what?"

"A cursed song? Like an incantation?" Gray asked

Lucy looked down and clenched her fists "I've only read about them in books, but there are some deadly forbidden spells out there, right?" she asked

I grimaced "yes. Cursed black magic that kills whoever, and whatever it's used on."

Lucy's frown deepened "Well, lullaby is even worse than that!"

She told us how the flute started out as a simple death-cursing tool. But fell into the hands of a powerful black wizard called Zeref and he developed it into a demon flute. It was a terrifying mass cursing Item that killed whoever heard the sound of it.

As soon as she had finished explaining Erza ordered us to get in the car quickly and we drove off at a speed that I was previously unaware the car could go at...

"Slow down, Erza!" Gray cried from the roof. "Powering this thing takes a lot of magical energy! Even for you, Erza!"

"This is no time for complacency!" she yelled "There's no telling what Erigor might do if he gets his hands on this death curse magic!"

I bit down hard on the inside of my cheek, there was no telling how much stronger Erigor had become from when we last met, and whether or not there was a chance of me beating him...But I'd have to try, and do it quickly. He probably knew about my mother's bounty on me and I couldn't have him blurting it out to my friends...

Just as a precaution I wrapped the scarf from my bag around my neck and covered my mouth and nose up with it, this way there was at least a smaller chance of him recognising me.

Noting the strange look I was getting from Lucy I plastered a goofy grin on my face "I have dust allergies" I said gesturing to the dust that was flying up around us from Erza's crazy driving.

She nodded in acceptance and turned back round to stare out the window. We had stopped on top of a hillside that overlooked Kunugi station, Eisenwald had recently taken it over and the civilians were all standing outside, demanding awnsers from the solders.

"I can understand carriages and boats" Lucy muttered "But taking over a train?"

Happy nodded "Aye! It wouldn't be very helpful, since they can only follow the tracks."

"But they _are _fast" Erza reminded them

"And perfect, if they're headed where you want to go." I added

"Sounds like the Eisenwald guys have to rush for some reason" Gray pointed out

I grimaced "Maybe they're running away from your scary half naked body..."

"Oh..." he said casually looking down.

"Still, the army's already taking action" Lucy said "so it's only a matter of time until they're caught."

"Let's hope so, anyway." Erza muttered, making the magic-mobile move forwards again. We sped over the hill tops and into the next town, zooming down the streets, people had to jump out of our way to avoid being hit.

"Erza! Not so fast!" Gray warned "you're overloading the SE plug!"

"Scores of people will die if the Lullaby flute is played!" Erza yelled back "Just hearing the sound of it is fatal!"

"What if you run out magic power just when we really need it? When_ we_ really need you?" I yelled to her trying to convey my worry

"If that happens, I'll use a stick or something to fight." She smirked "besides Gray and Natsu are with you too."

I smiled slightly hopeful again before I caught sight of the travel sick Natsu and sighed "I'm so doomed..." I muttered, but a grin worked its way onto my face. I stared out the window, mentally steeling myself for the upcoming fight.

"What is that?" Erza asked staring at the tower of smoke coming from Oshibana station. We sped off towards it and arrived in seconds. After parking Erza rushed off to interrogate the station guards

"Tell me!" she asked hastily "what's the situation inside?"

When he didn't immediately answer she knocked him out and moved onto the next guard.

"I guess she has no use for people who can't answer immediately" Lucy muttered

I frowned "Erza must really be worried..." I said staring at the seemingly aggressive woman "she's not usually this impatient." I muttered

"Finally starting to understand what she's like?" Gray asked Lucy

She sweatdropped and I growled "put some clothes on in public, you pervert."

Erza cut off the oncoming argument by walking over and saying "Eisenwald's inside. Let's go."

"Right!" we all agreed following her inside the large building.

"Apparently, a small army unit broke in earlier but has yet to return." Erza told us, leading us down a hallway. "They're probably locked in combat with Eisenwald"

We ran up to a set of staircases where the aforementioned soldiers laid still, their weapons broken and they laid slumped up the stairs.

"They've been wiped out!" Happy cried out

We walked up the stairs and past them "we're up against and entire guild, they're all wizards in other words, a small army unit never stood a chance" Erza muttered

We entered a main room filled with Eisenwald wizards and in the middle; standing on the window ledge was a familiar face.

"Erigor." I whispered my hands moving up to check my scarf was still in place.

"So you _did _come, you Fairy Tail flies." He mocked

"Wake up, Natsu! Time to work!" Lucy pleaded shaking Natsu's still out of it form.

"It's no use." Happy told her "he rode a train, a magic-mobile, and then you. It's a triple vehicle sickness combo!"

"I'm a vehicle?" Lucy asked loudly

"Damn flies!" a man at the front of the crowd with a white coat and ponytail yelled "because of you, Erigor got mad at me...!"

Natsu stiffened "that voice!"

"What is your aim?" Erza demanded "what are you planning to do with the Lullaby?"

"You mean you don't know?" Erigor drawled and jumped up, levitating in the air in front of us "what do train stations have?"

"He's flying!" Lucy gasped

"Wind magic" I informed her quietly

Erigor's eyes snapped to me and I looked down praying he wouldn't notice.

My prayers must've been ignored because moments later I heard him laugh and mutter "an interesting development."

Erza scowled "you plan to broadcast it?" she yelled, shocked.

Erigor laughed obnoxiously "thousands of nosy onlookers have gathered around this station. No, If I raise the volume, the melody of death might just echo throughout the entire city..."

"You're going to make innocent people hear the Lullaby being played?" Erza asked furious

"This is a cleansing" Erigor told her calmly "a cleansing of fools who preserve their livelihoods by flaunting their rights, ignorant of those who've had their rights stolen away." He told us referring to him and the rest of his dark guild "It is a sin to live oblivious in this unfair world. Therefore... the reaper has come to dish out punishment."

I scowled "Urgh. You talk too much. Earth magic!" I cried making an earth pillar lift me up to his level "you're and idiot if you think this'll give you your rights back!" I told him kicking out at his chest.

He blocked me and hit out with his arm, I back flipped away saying "You were kicked out of the wizard league for a reason you know, you're never going to get any sympathy if you keep doing bad things!"

He laughed as I sent a vine towards his neck and shredded it with wind "at this point, we don't want rights. We want power!"

I scowled and made a block of rock fly at him from behind, he kicked it, smashing it completely and making the gravel rain down on his guild, some of them being knocked out by the falling debris "with power, we can wash away the entire past and control the future." He laughed

I laughed with him cynically "you're completely insane" I said as I made to punch him in the face.

He grabbed my wrist and threw me into the wall grinning.

He followed me and stood over my panting form lying in the crater and grabbed me by the hair

"I leave the rest to you." He told his guild "Teach them the true terror of a dark guild" he floated up into the air holding me by my hair and we disappeared.

"Aargh! You freak. That hurts!" I screamed as he floated over the train station roof.

He looked at the hand holding me and smirked "it does?" he asked in mock surprise "opps." He laughed dropping me.

I screamed as I fell ready to hit the ground and die when he grabbed me by the wrist.

"Your mother wouldn't like it if I let you die Adrianna, or should I say..."

"SHUT UP!" I screeched, head butting his chest "never mention that name to me! I've left all that behind me! And you should have to! Maybe then you wouldn't be so completely insane" I told him sourly

He chuckled before scowling "do you know what happened when I lost to you all those years ago?"

I shook my head and frowned "your parents hit you right? It's not that bad" I muttered "my mother did much worse to me..."

He laughed darkly "not only did they hit me. They beat me senseless and left me in the forest to die"

I gasped, I had no Idea I had caused something like that to happen, the guilt of it pushed down on my chest like a lead weight and tears pricked at my eyes as he continued "The Eisenwald guild found me and took me in. As I grew up there I gradually became more evil and twisted..."

I looked up at him pitifully "I could help you..."

His dark laughter cut me off "As if I'd accept help from a pitiful fly like you, I swore revenge on 3 people that day and I killed my parent's years ago." He looked at me and smirked darkly licking his lips "though it _is _a shame such a dark beauty like you should go to waste... I'll try not to cut your pretty face too much." He assured me

My breath came out in pants and I felt my heart race "NO!" I screamed "they'll stop you! Erza, Natsu, Gray?" I screamed, looking around in panic, my movements quick and shaky

Erigor stared deeply into my fearful grey ones and smirked "Your friends aren't here, they probably don't even care. After all, who could care for a cold hearted murderer like you?" he told me.

My fast paced heart almost stopped as he threw me into the air and stabbed me in the stomach with his scythe. He let me slide off it slowly and fall into his arms. The pain was immense and I felt myself blacking out

I saw his cold emotionless face watching me lie there, and with tears in my eyes I muttered three words before I slipped into the darkness.

End Adrianna's point of view

Erigor floated there, frozen, watching the still doll like looking girl in his arms. Her shirt was ripped torn and dirty, and was quickly staining red with her blood. Her breaths came in gasps and her face became paler and paler.

A roar of anger filled the night.

Erza, who had just finished evacuating the town, looked up to see a giant twister furiously spinning with freezing winds and surrounding the station she had recently exited.

'_The stations is surrounded by wind!'_ she thought panicked

Hearing a mocking and emotionless laugh behind her she turned round expecting to see Erigor, she was not expecting however to see her best friend held tightly in his arms.

Her tiny form limp, lifeless and blood stained.

Erza gasped, she wasn't... she couldn't be...

Tears sprung to her eye but she blinked them back, anger and fear filling her.

"W-what have you done to her?" she demanded.

Erigor ignored her completely "I had always wanted to fight you at least once, Queen." He told her, his words sounding empty and dark "But it's a pity. I have no time to play with you now!" He yelled using his magic to force her behind the barrier.

"Erigor!" Erza raged, running forwards to try and get through the barrier. She was blasted back and heard Erigor's dark mocking laugh.

"Forget it." He taunted "this magic wind wall is one-way only. Try to leave and the wind will tear you apart."

"What is the meaning of this?" Erza demanded "What have you done to Adrianna? Why...?" she trailed off her throat tightening

"You people have wasted much of our time. I must be going now." Erigor said but before he left he glanced down at the lifeless girl in his arms, he sneered

"Pathetic how she even thought she could make a difference." He took one more look at her; he stroked her nearly white face and whispered "such a shame" almost remorsefully before throwing her through the wind barrier and flying away.

Seeing the figure flying through the wind barrier, Erza leapt and caught her, cradling the girl's still form to her, tears falling from one eye and onto the younger girl's body.

She held two fingers to her throat and almost collapsed from relief when she felt a pulse, tying the remains of Arianna's top around the still bleeding wound as a make shift bandage.

She picked up the weaker girl and cradled her in her arms muttering angrily "You'll pay for this Erigor."

She headed back indoors and interrogated the men she had beaten earlier.

She demanded they remove the wind barrier, but the answer she got was always the same. "Forget it!" "It's impossible!" "You know we can't undo the magic barrier..." she was about to beat them up from frustration when Gray's voice called out to her from the floor above.

"Erza!"

"Gray! Wasn't Natsu with you?" she asked him

"We split up!" he told her quickly "but never mind that for now! Eisenwald's real target is the town up ahead!"

"What?" Erza questioned sharply

"Gramps' and the others' conference!" he informed her, panic lacing each word. "They plan to use the Lullaby there!" he said eyes wide

If It was even possible Erza became even angrier, she almost had an aura of power floating around her that would make most men cry in fear "is that so?"

Gray hurried down to talk to her face to face

"There's a magic barrier surrounding the station" Erza told him

"Yeah I saw it" The ice wizard muttered "try and break out and it'll turn you into mincemeat" he said walking into the room

Erza had her back to him and was cradling the girl against her chest with one arm, the other arm dangled limply by her side. "I've already tried" she muttered

"Erza! Your arm...!" Gray said in alarm.

Erza spun around and held the girl out for him to see "that isn't our biggest worry!"

Gray choked on air as he saw the motionless woman, her hair normally up in a perfect bun was splayed around her abnormally pale face, it was a frightening looking contrast, his eyes ventured down to her bindings (he blushed) and her stomach where her top had been used as a bandage and already had blood seeping through it.

"R-Rian...?" he gasped "Erigor did this?" he demanded, his eyes flashing darkly

Erza nodded stiffly "could you possibly hold her? I may need an arm free to fight."

Gray held out his arms and Erza placed her gently into them, Gray almost gasped at how light she felt.

He looked down at her pale face and noticed the dried tear tracks, what had Erigor done to her?

Erza led him urgently down the hall, in search of the seal breaking wizard Kage.

they ran down endless corridors and eventually found the wizard with Natsu at the top of a stair case. Natsu had blasted him into a wall and was standing over him triumphantly

"That's enough!" Erza demanded "we need him!"

"Way to go fire freak!" Gray yelled at him angrily, holding the unconscious girl tightly in his arms

"huh?" Natsu said oblivious "wait! I-I dunno what I did" he yelled "but I'm sorry..." he trailed off in shock as he caught sight of Rian in Gray's arms

His eyes went wide "Is she...?" he gasped

Gray scowled "she's not dead Idiot. Not yet." He yelled at the fire mage _'and she won't be for a while, cause we're gonna protect her'_ he added on silently in his head

Natsu's face darkened in anger and his fists lit up "Erigor, that, bastard." He muttered observing the sorry form of his teammate "He's gonna regret this!" he yelled shooting fire at the ceiling.

Erza ran past him and pointed her sword at Kage "you will be quiet and remove the wind wall for us!" she demanded darkly

He whimpered and Erza scowled "understood?"

"a-all right." He stuttered nervously.

A hand reached through the wall and through his stomach, everyone gasped.

"WH-why...?" Kage choked out.

The hand pulled back, Kage fell to the floor and everyone saw the perpetrator, a fat green haired man was using magic to go through the wall, he was whimpering and froze there, looking ashamed and scared out of his wits.

"Damn! He was out only way out!" Gray yelled and rand to the fallen man, kneeling beside him, and holding Rian in one arm.

"Kage!" Erza yelled, running to his other side and propping him up "Stay with us!" she demanded "we need your help!"

Natsu stayed completely still and wide eyed throughout all of this, staring disbelievingly at the fat man with green hair

Damn! I can't believe this!" Gray cursed

"You're the only one who can remove the magic wind wall!" Erza yelled "don't die!"

Natsu clenched his fist muttering "He's one of you own comrades...!" he lit up in fire yelling "He's a member of your own guild!"

The fat man disappeared back into the wall and Natsu exploded, punching the wall open after him "you bastard! Is that just how you guild is?"

Erza cradled Kage's head in her arm "Kage! You need to stay with us!"

Gray frowned at her "its not use Erza! He's unconscious."

Erza flipped, knocking Kage up and down and yelling "we can't let him die! He has to do this!"

Gray sweat dropped "come on! He can't use magic in his condition!"

"He has to do it!" Erza yelled

They were cut off from arguing by a scream , Lucy's.

The blonde ran over to Gray's side and looked despairingly down at Adrianna "w-what happened?" she stuttered

Gray frowned "we... don't know." He scowled "Erza found her like this..." he was shaking from anger "in the arms of...t-that bastard Erigor."

Lucy felt tears run down her cheeks and gasped in shock when she felt a thin cold hand reach up and wipe them away.

She looked down to see Rian smiling up at her softly "don't cry about me" she whispered letting her arm drop back.

Erza and Gray gasped and smiled down at the petite girl, Natsu just smirked and ruffled her hair

"I knew you couldn't be that hurt midget." He muttered

The sound of Adrianna's laughter filled them all with relief

She stubbornly refused to be carried and walked beside them all the way outside, biting her lip when her wound twinged in pain.

When they reached the wind wall she sat down against a pillar sighing with relief and fell asleep again, much to the group's amusement.

The group discovered Happy's forgetfulness about Virgo's key and watched Lucy open her gate and summon the maid, they escaped and Natsu and Happy flew ahead, whilst the others travelled by the magic-mobile along the train tracks.

Rian was asleep in Gray's lap and he was watching her curiously, how had she managed to get so beaten up by Erigor? She had all sorts of magic at her disposal, it was impossible she couldn't have used at least one of them...

He shook his head, it just didn't make sense.

He looked down at her pale face once more, she looked so vulnerable. He'd never seen her like this; she either had a composed facial expression, or a goofy one. It was like she didn't want people to see the real her.

The car stopped suddenly and the movement jolted her awake quickly, her eyelashes fluttered open and grey eyes meet blue, Gray looked away blushing and Rian smirked before looking around in confusion "where are we?" she croaked and sat up, looking out the window.

Her eyes widened "Erigor..." she whispered, climbing clumsily over Gray and out the car, he watched her go frowning, before hurrying to follow.

The girl stumbled down the railroad, ignoring the worried looks from her friends, she knelt besides Erigor crying.

He looked up through dazed eyes to see her crying form; to him she truly looked like an angel.

"I'm so sorry" she muttered repeatedly, staring in horror at his charred form.

He frowned "I heard you before" he recalled her words to him at the station "I tried to kill you." He whispered "why are you apologising"

She wiped away her tears angrily "I caused...you...this..." she murmured angrily

He chuckled darkly, but it soon turned into coughs "I did all this, not you, don't you dare even think about stealing my infamy." He wheezed

She smirked weakly "like I'd want it." she turned to leave but he grabbed her arm and whispered "I'll see you soon senka-hime." He leered and winked before passing out again

Rian gasped and fell backwards, scuttling backwards away from him, fear evident on her face

Gray pulled her up to stand next to him "What was that all about?" he demanded

Rian's mind raced madly, she put a sheepish grin on her face "I wanted to find out why he hurt me" she offered

Gray frowned, he knew she was lying, but he wouldn't call her up on it. He sent a glare to Erigor's still form; they seemed to be a little _too_ close for comfort.

Rian's point of view

I felt dizzy and sick, and this wasn't from my wound. I hadn't heard my real name in 10 years.

Hearing it spoken so easily caused shivers to run down my spine and my mind to freeze up.

I frowned. I'd left all that behind. And that was how it was going to stay.

A loud crash snapped me completely out of my thoughts; Kage had stolen the Magic-mobile and the Lullaby and was escaping with them.

"The Lullaby is mine!" he yelled "You let your guard down, flies!"

We hurried after him, on foot. I ran for a few minutes before I collapsed.

"ARGH!" I screamed "stupid weak body!" I punched my leg in anger

Gray smirked down at me "need a hand?"

I scowled as I climbed on his back, blushing as soon as he couldn't see me. This was so embarrassing; I had never felt so weak and helpless.

We caught up to Kage at the conference hall; we spotted him on a hill below us, talking to master Makarov.

"Gramps!" Natsu muttered in shock.

We were about to rush down and intervene but a giant crossing man came out of nowhere yelling "shhhh!" he made a 'cute feminine' pose "It's just getting good! Watch quietly!" he demanded

He looked at gray and Natsu and cooed "Oh, you two are such cuties! You're just my type!"

They boys watched him with horror.

"Who is this?" Lucy asked watching the fluttering transvestite

"Master Bob" Erza sweatdropped

He looked over at us "Oh, Erza? You've grown... Rian... uh... you haven't huh?"

I scowled and sent a glare his way "of course I've grown" I muttered "I'm not still the size of a 10 year old am I?"

Lucy looked at the man disbelievingly "_he's _the master of Blue Pegasus?"

Erza hushed us and we watched Makarov and Kage interact

"What's wrong? Hurry it up" Makarov demanded of Kage

Kage gulped before lowering his lips to the flute once again.

"Oh, no!" We all cried out panicked

"Just be quiet and watch." A man wearing a dog's collar told us "this is getting good."

"The Quarto Cerberus' Master Goldmine!" Lucy gasped

"well?" Makarov demanded once again

Kage breathed heavily, indecisive

"Nothing will change" Makarov told him sternly "the weak will always remain weak, but weakness isn't necessarily bad. People are weak creatures by nature. People's insecurities are why guilds exist. Why comrades exist. They come together and move forward, to live life to the fullest."

I smiled thinking of all my friends at the guild and how we relied on each other and how we looked out for each other.

"If you're clumsy, you might run into more obstacles and take a long way around, but as long as you step forward with faith in tomorrow, you'll find that your strength will emerge on its own. You'll be able to smile and live life to the fullest. You don't need some special flute for that." Makarov told him

The flute clattered to the floor and we watched as Kage fell to his knee's saying "I give up!"

We were finally allowed to run over to him.

"Master" Erza called

Natsu grinned "Gramps!"

"Oh! what are you guys doing here?" he asked us cheerfully

"That was well said!" Erza praised, hugging him into her armour 'Donk' "your words were truly moving!"

Natsu enthusiastically patted Makarov on the head and I laughed at Erza's glare sent towards him. The moment was shattered by a roaring voice yelling

"I grow tired of all you gutless wizards!"

Black smoke streamed out of the Lullaby flute.

"Something came out!" Happy exclaimed

A gigantic magic symbol appeared in the sky and the sound of crackling magic filled the air

"I can no longer hold back! I shall eat you myself!" Lullaby declared emerging from the symbol

A giant wooden monster with 3 glowing eyes stared down at us "I will devour your souls!" it roared

"It's too big!" Lucy cried out

Happy turned to her worriedly "that's your complaint?"

"What the...?" Gray asked

Kage looked up it worriedly "N-No one told me about this!"

"Oh, this is a pickle." Master Rob cooed.

The other guild masters rushed to evacuate the conference building

"Why did a monster come out the flute?" Lucy asked

Master Goldmine frowned "That monster _is _Lullaby; in the flesh" he muttered "it's living magic, in other words. Zeref's magic."

We turned to him confused "Living magic?" Gray asked "Zeref? That ancient wizard?" Erza questioned

I nodded "the black wizard Zeref, was the most evil wizard in the history of wizard kind. He must've left this magic behind centuries ago, only to take form now!"

"Now, then!" Lullaby roared at us "whose soul shall I dine on first?"

"What did you say?" Natsu hissed, he turned to Gray "Hey, are souls tasty?"

Gray glared at him "don't ask me. How should I know?"

"Natsu! Get everyone away from here. Grey! Take Rian to a doctors, we've already let her wound go untended to for too long." Erza demanded

I scowled "I'm staying here to fight Erza!" I declared

She sent me a glare but I deflected it with one of my own and she sighed

"Just don't get under my feet." She muttered

The Lullaby sent a destructive beam into a mountain; exploding it and making the nearby army run away in fear.

"Now then! I've decided! I will devour _all_ your souls, wizards!" it bellowed

"All right, then!" Natsu challenged "bring it on, if you dare!"

"Good luck...!" the guild masters cheered, a safe distance away.

"What can just the four of them do?" I hear Lucy mutter behind us

The lullaby roared into the sky and Erza just smirked and unsheathed her sword.

"Let's go!" she called

"Yeah!" we all agreed

And followed her up to the monster.

"Reequip!" she gracefully reequipped into her knight armour and flew at the beast, slashing it with her swords.

"Ice make... Lance!" Gray cried launching the gigantic lance into the monster.

I grinned chanting "Mother nature lend me your power; Earth magic!" I raised a giant rock pillar that went straight through the middle of the Lullaby.

"Chew on this!" Natsu shouted "Fire Dragon Iron Fist!" and punched the monster in the face with his flaming fist.

We repeated these actions until the Lullaby lashed out at us "you're starting to annoy me!" It roared.

So we smirked and doubled our attacks.

Erza using more swords.

Gray made a crossbow of ice that fired thousands of shots at once.

I launched boulders, one after the other, never stopping.

And Natsu attacked it with his dragon wing attack.

The Lullaby roared and sucked in all the life from nearby tree's and plant life. I frowned, Mother Nature was going to hate me if I let this guy live now.

"Your souls will be mine!" It yelled opening its mouth wide to let out the dreaded song, it tooted.

Like a broken wind chime, or a baby's fart. The noise it made was embarrassing.

"What is this sound?" Lullaby wheezed "where has my great musical sound gone?"

Lullaby stood their in disbelief for a few moments before raging "to hell with this!" It screeched, kicking mountains and trees down.

"ice-make... shield!" Gray yelled bringing his shield up in time to stop all the guild masters and Lucy from being hit by Lullaby's explosion of fire.

I was in front of the shield though and had to quickly bring up my own earth made one before I got fried.

"Curse you!" Lullaby whined.

Natsu ate all the fire that it produced with a burp.

He ran up the monsters arm and up to its face

Erza reequipped into Black wing armour. Making half the Guild masters get nosebleeds

Gray sent a spinning ice saucer into the Lullaby's middle, smashing it open

I grinned "Earth magic!" I made vines wrap up and drag the monster sharply down to the ground.

Erza slashed it up the face

And Natsu finished it off by using his 'fire dragon brilliant flame!' attack that blasted it into particles and resulted in a huge explosion of the nearby area.

Lucy and Makarov ran over and praised our work; we modestly denied it, well... I did

"That wasn't much at all!" Natsu said

"It was piece of cake" Gray told them

'_Tch, oh well, I suppose they deserve a moment of glory, they did do amazingly well against that thing...'_ I thought laughing to myself

They noticed that we'd not only destroyed the conference hall but a mountain or two as well.

The master almost fainted and Natsu just laughed it off.

I couldn't help joining in, after all, I almost died today, who knows, I might tomorrow. So I think I'm going to keep living life to the fullest so that when I do die, I won't have any regrets...


End file.
